Handiham Radio Club Nets

The Handiham Radio Club Nets

We are on the air daily at 11:00 USA Central Time, plus Wednesday evening at 19:00 USA Central Time. If there is not a Net Control Station available, the net will be a simple round table.

USA Time Change: All nets remain true to local USA Central Time – For example, 11:00 AM both summer and winter. In the summer during DST, the difference between MN time and GMT is -5 hours. In the winter during standard time, the difference is -6 hours. In the USA, Daylight time begins on the second Sunday in March at 02:00 AM and reverts to Standard Time on the first Sunday in November at 02:00 AM.

Welcome to the NX0P repeater, 146.685 with a tone of 100Hz, Echolink node number 513917. The NX0P machine is near Albert Lea in far southern Minnesota, near the busy intersection of US Interstate highways 90 and 35.

POLICY STATEMENT

1. All nets are to be identified as Handiham Radio Club nets at the beginning of the nets and when the NCS identifies the nets, consistent with FCC regulations and good operating practice.
2. The Net Manager sets policy and must be informed about and approve any substantive changes, subject to oversight by the Handiham Radio Club.
3. The Net Manager will approve net information before it is posted on public Handiham Radio Club websites.
4. Everyone will work together as a team, maintaining a positive, helpful, and respectful attitude.

Join our worldwide daily 11:00 AM USA Central Time EchoLink net and a roundtable session on Sundays. If you are not available during the daytime, try our 7:00 PM USA Central Time Wednesday evening session that includes a trivia question. All licensed operators are welcome. The net is controlled but informal, and there is no need to be a Handiham member to participate. Sometimes the net control station will throw out a discussion topic to liven things up! Listen in a few times if you are shy, and then take the plunge and throw out your callsign.

Operating tip: Because so many different nodes and repeaters are connected across the world, there can be a bit more delay between transmissions than you might be used to. Be sure to allow a few seconds before keying after the net control station calls for check-ins. This allows the nodes and repeaters in the network to all get synchronized.

The Wednesday evening EchoLink net is at 19:00 United States Central Standard time, which translates to +6 hours, or 01:00 GMT Thursday morning during North American Standard Time. (In the North American summer during DST, the GMT schedule is +5 hours.) Connect from any Internet-enabled computer in the world, and come out on Twin Cities repeater N0BVE on 145.450. Remember that GMT is AHEAD of Minnesota time, so to translate to GMT you need to add 5 hours in the summer and 6 hours in the winter to Minneapolis time.

On the second Sunday of March in the United States, we move to Central Daylight Time, at least in most places. That means that hours for our daily nets are adjusted accordingly, beginning with the midday EchoLink net, which is on at 11:00 Minnesota time. Since the local time has shifted ahead one hour, you will now find the daily net at 11 + 5 = 16:00 GMT Monday through Saturday.

A question we get frequently around the time to shift between Daylight and Standard is, “Why do you change the net times to follow Daylight Saving Time? Wouldn’t it be easier to just stick with GMT and not change the times?”

The answer is that we have tried staying with GMT in the past, but received complaints from net members who liked staying on their local time schedules. Also, we ran up against other nets using the same frequencies unless we maintained the “local” times.

HF Operations

Here are some other nets and times:

Friday CW Net:

Many thanks to Paul W8IRT, SK, for his years of service on the Friday CW net. Dave WD8LDY is hoping to restart the net. Stay tuned for updates!

The PICONET operates on a frequency of 3.925 MHz, Lower Side Band:

Monday – Saturday 09:00 – 11:00
Monday – Friday 15:00 – 17:00

Everyone is welcome. You do not need to be a member, and the net is relaxed, friendly, and informal. The PICONET does have an assigned net control station and will take NTS traffic. It has a long time association with the Handiham Program. Handiham members can easily participate in PICONET via the remote base stations W0EQO or W0ZSW.